


So He Doesn't

by Malana



Category: The Thick of It (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 07:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2804957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malana/pseuds/Malana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie watches the Goolding Inquiry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So He Doesn't

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kitmarlowed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitmarlowed/gifts).



> The request for was sad and wistful. I hope I managed that.

He should be happy about it. 

Well, not happy. Spitefully gleeful, maybe. Schadenfreude is not exactly a foreign feeling for Jamie. He's taken pleasure in many a politician's downfall. And it's not exactly like he and Malcolm had ended things on good terms. 

But when he's watching Malcolm in front of the Goolding Inquiry he doesn't feel any satisfaction. He doesn't even feel the spark of anger he usually does when he sees Malcolm's name in a newspaper article, or catches a glimpse of him hovering in the background at a press conference. 

Maybe it's simply that he hates everyone else involved even more than he hates Malcolm. The idea that people like Dan Miller and Ollie Reeder are benefiting from the fiasco certainly does sour things. Dan fucking Miller. The ultimate in empty politicians. A pretty face, a handsome smile and a well-honed ability to lay on the charm. Jamie hates charm. 

When Jamie left, after the leadership crisis that led to the fight to end all fights between the two of them, he'd thought of all the different ways he'd like to see Malcolm suffer. But having him brought down by this bunch of hypocritical poxy wankers wasn't on the list. 

Sam emails him frequently, as she has since he left, keeping him comprised of various bits of gossip. Who fucked up what at the office, who got pissed at the pub and cracked onto who. His is no longer the remit of political scandals and sleazy MPs, but he does enjoy laughing at idiots. He doesn't ask how Malcolm is doing. He never asks how Malcolm is, but if Sam sees fit to tell him, well, it's not like he can stop her. He may feel anger whenever Malcolm is mentioned, but that's not the only thing he feels, no matter how hard he tries. On numerous occasions, and with the sort of iron patience required of someone who has worked closely with Malcolm for almost a decade, Sam asks that he ring Malcolm. He ignores this, much as she ignores his various and detailed rants on the different ways in which Malcolm can go fuck himself. Though, as the inquiry goes on, and her requests get more desperate, he occasionally finds himself wavering. 

Not that he's never been tempted to ring the bastard before. He has been. Plenty of times. Whenever a particularly big disaster or scandal hit, he finds himself reaching for his mobile. Whether to gloat or commiserate, he's never quite sure. But then he remembers being called a pint-pot Judas and it's as if not a day has past since that night and the new urge he has to resist is the one to throw his mobile across the room. 

So he doesn’t phone him.

\--------

It was Malcolm that got him involved in politics in the first place. Back when Jamie was working at a newspaper, stuck writing an arts review column that more often than not made him want to tear his damned hair out. On more than one occasion he’d be up against a deadline, staring at his notepad, trying to figure out how to write a review from notes that simply said “fuck these pretentious cunts” and "I should do the world a favour and burn this whole fucking gallery to the ground" 

Malcolm wasn’t the legend that he would one day become back then. He was still frightening, and a man that people knew could get things done, but it wasn’t until he had Jamie by his side that he really became THE Malcolm Tucker. The one who no one would dream of fucking with. The man who could slay dragons with a few choice words and the power of his glare. Malcolm always liked to say that he corrupted Jamie. That wasn’t entirely true. Really, Malcolm simply saw a potential for his rage and vitriol and pointed him in the right direction. Years by Malcolm’s side may have honed his yelling and threatening skills, but Jamie liked to think that they were always there, just waiting to be harnessed.

Still, once Jamie started working for Malcolm, he was happier. That may not have been evident to many of those who crossed paths with him, but he was glad to have a purpose. Sometimes it was a shitty purpose, true. They’d had to protect plenty of pieces of scum fuckery who the world would be better off without. But it was for the greater good of the Party, and so, as Malcolm had managed to convince him over time, for the greater good of the nation. Besides, occasionally he’d get to threaten said pieces of scum with sandpaper handjobs with lemon juice lube, so there were plenty of other upsides as well. 

It didn’t matter how bad things got. How many scandals he had to cover up. How many idiots he had to appease or debase, save or destroy. It didn’t matter if there were days when he screamed himself hoarse and felt like he was going give himself a stroke. None of it mattered, really. Because at the end of the day, there was Malcolm. The one person in the vast sea of cunts that make up political life who he actually gave a damn about. And who he knew, no matter what was said between them, gave a damn about him in return. He hadn’t thought that it’d be possible for a fight to end that. 

Which just goes to show that even someone as bitter and jaded as Jamie could be naive. 

Because Jamie doesn't have a problem with being insulted. He certainly doesn't have a problem with screaming matches. Not even against Malcolm. Especially not against Malcolm, actually. Fighting with Malcolm was fun, a challenge. But accusations of disloyalty...that he couldn't abide. Yes, he'd gone off the reservation a bit with Cliff and all, in his resistance to the idea of a Nutter regime. But that was all fair game. They had each backed their horse, and Jamie had lost. No harm done, really. Malcolm would hold it over his head for a bit, and that would be that. Being accused of leaking to the press. That was another matter entirely. 

Still, he hadn't really thought that Malcolm would call his bluff when he threatened to quit over it. They'd had fights before. The kind of knock-down drag-out screaming matches that caused everyone else to flee the room. Then, the next morning, there'd be a few grudgingly grumbled words that could be taken as apologies and they'd both be back to focusing their rage on other people. They'd always been drawn back together to unite against the fuck-ups of other, stupider, people. Prone to sentimentality, Jamie was not, but if he believed in ‘good old days’, those were them. Fighting and scrapping and saving (or destroying) political careers. All of it gone in a flash of rage, neither of them willing to be the one who backed down. To say that they were wrong. They simply weren’t those kind of men. Even if they wanted to be. Every time Jamie had gotten close to buckling, the resentment would flash through him again. It wasn’t his fault it was Malcolm’s. Jamie should have to be the one to back down. And so days turned into weeks, and then it was a couple of years later and what was he supposed to do? Suddenly turn back up at Malcolm’s door with his tail between his legs? Begging for forgiveness? To have his job back? To have his purpose back? To have his friend back? No. He can never show that kind of weakness. What if Malcolm laughed in his face? So, he keeps his anger stoked instead. Always keep it burning. It's better than the alternative. 

So he doesn’t phone him. 

\-----

So now Jamie watches the telly, reads every newspaper article, watching as the man he once called his friend is destroyed, brick by brick. 

But what is there to say? If he were still there, this wouldn’t be happening, he’s sure of it. Together they’d have found a way to beat it. It would have never gotten this far. Together, they had been an unstoppable, unfuckable force. But what could he say now? They haven’t spoken in years. Malcolm is finished. He’ll never recover from this. It’s only a matter of just how far he will fall. Even if Jamie could finally let go of the anger he has been so careful to hold on to, what do you say to the person who matters most to you when they are being destroyed before your eyes? And would Malcolm even want to hear it? From Jamie of all people? It’s been too long. Too much silence has passed between them. 

So he doesn’t phone him.


End file.
